Halloween Madness
by Serenity and Zwen
Summary: finished; the YGO gang is hving a party at Ryou's house, some swearing, not to bad story is better then it sounds ((seto + serenity , zwen + ryou,, yamis are seperated)) (PG)~Zwen


~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Halloween Hubbub  
  
~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~  
  
Serenity: ....  
  
Zwen: ^-^  
  
Ryou: .you're pure evil.  
  
Zwen: That's a compliment coming from you  
  
Serenity: .........  
  
Ryou: Anyway.Zwen does not own yu-gi-oh * whispers * or a brain.  
  
Zwen: I heard that!! And besides if I didn't have a brain I wouldn't be alive.  
  
Serenity: ...............  
  
Ryou: You got that from your health class today didn't you....? and as usual you barely paid attention.  
  
Zwen: .huh? What you say? Me no pay attention.  
  
Ryou: ...  
  
Bakura = Ryou Yami Bakura = Bakura Yami Yugi =Yami Yami Malik = Marik Malik = Malik  
  
On with the fic!! ^-^  
  
'Tis the eve of October the 29th... "Hey, guys! I've got news!" Zwen announced in her overly cheerful mood that made the skin of everybody in the room jump off their bodies. Well, figuratively saying.  
  
It was a Friday and the weekends have arrived once more, and to celebrate it, the gang decided to do their hanging out in the place were they usually sit around and dawdle... the Bakura residence. Everyone was settled on wherever they could do so in the gigantic living room of Ryou's house. His father was on an archaeologist expedition in Egypt. And his aunt was out shopping.  
  
So there. Everyone was having a good time of their own before Zwen's whirlwind of a larynx projection came intruding in. Ryou, the main man (er, the host of the house), was sitting on one of the living room's stylish and huge bean bags watching satellite tv and eating caramel popcorn. Mai was doing the same, only she just got her very own cellular hand phone and was texting away to the extent that she had herself a world of her own. Tea and Serenity were somewhere by the mini fridge, oohing and aahing at the vast array of drinks and cookies and chocolate (fresh from Switzerland); and finding themselves having a difficult time choosing on what to munch on first, had been staying there for a whole fifteen minutes. Bakura and Marik were yelling and growling their heads off as they battled--through the Playstation, of course, in a game of two-player racing, in one of those other wide-screen television sets the living room accommodated. Even in all their noise, Mai didn't mind, for she was really too absorbed in her texting. And Seto, the loner with a big, shining, glow-in-the-dark 'L' Seto, was, as usual, by himself sitting on the living room's glass windowpane ledges, musing. Anyway, all activity was stopped, and I mean Halt (English)! Alto (Spanish)! Yameru (Japanese)! Statue dance (Um... nevahmind) kinda stop when Zwen barged in! And when everyone stared at her, Zwen just lightly beamed in her kawaii neko style and giggled. "Didn't you hear me? I said that I've got news!" "Oi, Zwen, we heard you, all right!" replied Bakura, looking glum at having just lost the racing game from the intensity eight interruption.  
  
"Yup! Loud and clear! To the highest mountain!" added Marik, feeling that winning against Bakura in a racing game was the greatest, most gallant thing he'd done in his pathetic lifetime (Kidding on the 'pathetic' part...!^^).  
  
As for Ryou, Mai, and Seto--No comment. "Oooh... Ahhhhh!!!" continued Tea and Serenity by the fridge, oblivious to everything except the food (@_@). "So, what's the news?" Ryou asked to ease everyone's I-just-recovered-from- a-heart-attack expressions. "Not bad, I hope?" "Nope, not bad at all!" Zwen cheerily continued as she took her place on the couch beside Mai, who, as we all know, was texting her life away on her brand new cellular hand phone...  
  
"Hey! Hey!" Bakura found his voice after plastering Marik's arrogant face to the nicely done wallpapered wall which seems no longer nicely done coz it's got Marik's face on it. "Does that mean, no new mission?" (by mission I mean evil people collecting millennium items)  
  
"No new mission?" Marik echoed, recovering from his battered state to take part on the conversation.  
  
"That means... no bad-guy butt-kicking!" Bakura concluded.  
  
"No expandination of energy!" Marik added.  
  
"Marik, that's 'expenditure', not 'expandination'," corrected Ryou after politely finishing a mouthful of popcorn. "And you don't 'expenditure' energy, you 'expenditure' time and money (Hail the Genius!)."  
  
"Yeah, wudever," Marik sputtered. "Anyway, is that it?" he asked, turning to Zwen.  
  
"Well," said Zwen, "you said it!" "AAAAWWWWWW!!!" groaned Bakura and Marik.  
  
"It'll be hell of a boring weekend!" commented Marik, whom, for once, Bakura readily agreed with.  
  
"Hey wait a minute! I'm not through yet!" yelled Zwen, leaping from the bean bag in frustration.  
  
Bakura and Marik dwindled and waved little white flaglets in the air. "Well, sorry!" they both chirped.  
  
"Hn," Seto grunted nonchalantly.  
  
"Yum! Yum! I want that one! That one!" cried Tea from the fridge (Oh, finally! Someone decided!).  
  
"Anyway, I was just saying is that you guys got no mission for the weekend, AND it is Halloween, and you know what that means?" "HALLOWEEN PARTY!!!" screeched Tea and Serenity in unison, still from the fridge (Huh? They were into the conversation the whole time?).  
  
"Tea, what's a 'Halloween party?'" inquired Serenity innocently after they both yelled it.  
  
"Um, I'll explain later, but thanks for yelling it when I told you so," replied Tea gratefully.  
  
"Okay," Serenity agreed. "EXACTLY!!!" Zwen finished with a beaming smile on her face, eyes closed.  
  
And when she opened them, she was surprised to see everybody wearing shades.  
  
"HEY, WHAT'RE THOSE FOR?!" demanded the black-haired deity in full rage.  
  
"It's your smile," replied Marik. "It's too bright."  
  
"Ha. Ha. It is to laugh," Zwen remarked sarcastically as everybody else took their shades off. "A Halloween party?" Mai echoed, returning to the real world (At last~!).  
  
"A Halloween party?" said Ryou, averting his eyes from the television screen to Zwen.  
  
"A Halloween party?" chorused Bakura and Marik, as though that was the very first time they had encountered that phrase.  
  
"A Hallo--" Ooops. Correction. "Hn!" said Seto, looking away. "YES!!! A HALLOWEEN PARTY!!" cried Zwen and Tea in unison, with Tea having just finished her first helping of low-fat, no-cholesterol, all-nutritious blueberry cheesecake. "ARE YOU GUYS FROM THE LIVING WORLD OR NOT?!"  
  
"Hel-lo? What are the reactions I'm getting here?" screamed Zwen in exasperation. "Let us sum up all the possibilities, okay? No mission, means nothing to do for the weekend. Nothing to do for the weekend means thinking of something to do for the weekend. Thinking of something to do for the weekend means coming up with an idea for throwing a party. And what comes to mind when one thinks of throwing a party on the last three days of October would think... Halloween (le puff)! Ta-da! Equals Halloween Party!!! Hel-lo?" "OOOOOOOHHHH! A HALLOWEEN PARTY," chimed in everyone, finally realizing. (Eh?) "A party? Woo-hoo!" rejoiced Marik and Bakura, taking off and romping around the living room as though they were in some kind of a voodoo ritual.  
  
"Took you that long to figure that out?" muttered Zwen to herself, referring to all those present, except Tea, that is. "Sounds okay," remarked Ryou, giving a shrug and returning his eyes back to the TV. "Wow! A party! Oh--hold on, I've got a text message here," said Mai as she, once again--yes, we all know that. "Hn." said Seto. What's new? "Yum, yum!" said Serenity, munching her heart away on a box of marshmallow- fudge brownies. Zwen and Tea looked disheveled, then they exchanged glances.  
  
"Well, aren't you gonna listen to our ideas?" they asked, almost pleadingly.  
  
All normal activity continued. Even Bakura and Marik, who were the most excited among all in the first place, continued a second round of the racing game. Again, the Tea and Zwen exchanged glances.  
  
And then, a wee evil smile spread itself on Zwen's lips.  
  
Tea smiled evilly as well in return as she got the idea. She got earplugs.  
  
And then, Zwen took a megaphone outta nowhere. After that, she took a deep breath, and-- "WE'RE LISTENING! WE'RE LISTENING!" everyone cried for mercy as soon as a notion of what Zwen was about to do registered itself in their minds (How come Ryou's got a slow mind today? Hmmm...).  
  
"Yes!" the party-arrangers congratulated themselves as they finally got everyone's attention. So, the agenda on the Halloween party curriculum began. After three minutes... "Vampires! Vampires! Vampires!" yelled Marik on the top of his lungs. "No! Werewolves!" shouted Bakura in an attempt to overcome Marik's raving. "Medieval! Medieval!" Tea was screaming. "No! Broadway!" piped in Mai. They all turned to her. "Broadway?!?!" they all wondered. "Oh, just forget it!" Mai sighed. Zwen had just announced that the Halloween party must have be a costume party (of course), and now, that catchy phrase seemed to have made everyone's imagination juices running, and they were all just suggesting some themes (well...). Every suggestion everyone made was scribbled down on her handy dandy notebook. "Well, people, any more ideas?" said Zwen at last. Then she giggled. "Hey, these are pretty good ideas!" They thought some more. "Children's Party theme!" Tea voiced out. "It'll be so kawaii!!" "Children's Party theme?" the boys conveyed their doubts aloud. "Yah!" returned Tea. "You know, everyone gets to wear oh-so-cute kiddie outfits with kiddie party hats and kiddie food and kiddie--" "Tea?" Bakura suddenly cut in. "Yes?" Tea responded, in all hopes that Bakura was finally agreeing with her. "Grow up!" deadpanned Mr. Spirit of the Ring. Tea's face grew dark and deadly, and Bakura regretted his awful deed at once. "LOOK WHO'S TALKING!!!" flared Tea, and soon she was chasing Bakura all over the place with a good-sized mallet in her hands. "Not near the grand piano, okay?" Ryou called to the two chasing kids. "All my dad's figurines are there!" Ahem, back to the agendum. "Can we dress as vegetables?" suggested Mai. Marik and Ryou and most especially Zwen Looked at her severely. "Kidding." "Yum, yum, yum!" said Serenity as she took another bite from a marshmallow- fudge brownie (* glare * I want one!!* pout *) "Corpses," suggested Seto darkly from where he sat reminiscing. "A he he," Zwen commented with a slightly lopsided grin. "That's not a very happy way to dress, Seto-chan," Serenity (finally!) said in her sweet little voice, stopping only from her feasting when her 'boyfriend' when he showed slight signs of socializing. "Hn," was Seto's reply, but from the corner of his eye, he glared at Zwen not to write that one down. Suddenly, Mai just gasped out of nowhere and rushed to Zwen's side.  
  
"I've got a really swell idea. You are gonna die when you'll hear this!" Mai gushed out with all the trembling excitement a girl can muster.  
  
Zwen, of course, felt very intrigued. "Okay, shoot!"  
  
Mai whispered in her ear, and Zwen gasped.  
  
"NANI?" the mental-case gasped.  
  
"No, no, wait! There's more!" And Mai leaned over and whispered again. "What the hell do you think they're saying?" Marik mumbled to Ryou.  
  
A yell from Bakura as Tea's mallet undoubtedly smacked him on the head filled the background atmosphere (...).  
  
Ryou shrugged. "They're blocking their conversation. I can't read their minds from here (he's using his millennium ring people)."  
  
"I just hate their damn schemes," muttered Marik after. "Hey--look at them! Why are they laughin' like that? And at us too! Crap! I don't like the way they look at you, Ryou. And--hey! What're they lookin' like that at me for?!" And when Marik couldn't take it any longer, he bounded up and bellowed, "HEY, WHAT'S THE BIG IDEA?!?!" The two girls stopped their fuss and replied with sweet innocent smiles on their sweet innocent faces (or so it seemed), "Oh, nothing."  
  
"Let's go get Tea!" Zwen insinuated automatically right after.  
  
"Good idea!" squealed Mai, and they sailed out of sight to fetch their friend. Silence. "Now what?" Ryou sighed.  
  
"I hate their stinkin' schemes," Marik repeated the umpteenth time.  
  
"Hn," said Seto, the umpteenth time as well.  
  
"This is good!" Serenity commented after taking a sip from her chocolate milk. Soon, they heard a scuffle of footsteps, and before any of them could say a word, Bakura came staggering in with about half-a-dozen fresh lumps on his head.  
  
"Oi, Bakura," Marik growled as soon as Bakura (in much of a daze) took his place beside him and Ryou. "What's up with those girls?"  
  
"She--she--she SET ME FREE!" Bakura cried out in exultation. Then, he fainted.  
  
"Nice answer," said Ryou simply.  
  
From down the hall that led to the living room, the boys heard three sets of giggles that echoed far and wide into the house.  
  
"Only one way to find out," Ryou spoke, finally and for once losing a bit of his patience. He got up and was about to calmly rush to the hallway when all three girls came prancing in with sly looks of evil glee marked on their faces. "Okay, okay, we know you're guilty of something. What is it?" Ryou inquired, quirking an eyebrow to emphasize his superiority (they were, after all, in his house). The girls gave him grins that still left him frustratingly clueless. Then, it all rushed and came into him like the greatest tsunami the whole of all the worlds had witnessed! (...)  
  
"All right, now, what costume idea did you exactly have in mind?" Ryou demanded in a harsh, yet gentlemanly fashion (uh-huh...).  
  
"Oh, girls," sang Zwen. "Shall we?"  
  
"We're planning..." Mai began, then they all finished in voices as crisp and clear as the morning's dew on a nice, ripe apple.  
  
"A TURN-ABOUT PARTY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Cricket chirps.  
  
A gush of wind.  
  
More cricket chirps.  
  
A gush of wind some more.  
  
A tumbleweed rolled across the room from nowhereland.  
  
Cricket chirps still. "What's a 'turn-about' party?" Serenity asked. "ACK!!!" All three girls toppled to the floor from having the whatever- atmosphere-they-were-trying-to-point-out shattered. "No," whispered Ryou in pure horror. "Hey--look! He's reacting! He's reacting!" squealed Mai as Tea and Zwen suppressed full-blown giggles in anticipation. The white haired boy regained his composure, and stared at them with ax murder (yup, you heard ME) in his eyes.  
  
"That's not funny," he said casually, trying hard not to, um, what's the word? Freak out. "Oh, but Ryou-kun, we are serious," Zwen said with a slur in her tone, visibly very pleased of his reaction. "What the? What the hell's all this?" yelled Marik from behind Ryou. "I wanna ask now. WHAT IN ALL THE BLASTED REALMS IS A TURN-ABOUT PARTY?!?!" "Marik," replied Ryou, "to be frank, and to justify why I reacted thus, it is because a turn-about party is when people dress the very opposite of what their sex is."  
  
"NANI?!!" spat the poor blond-haired kid. "You mean, girls will dress as boys and boys will dress as... " He seemed to falter on the last word. "...girls?"  
  
Then, as abruptly as lightning would strike the earth, Tea, Zwen, and Mai burst out laughing with all their accounted feminine might.  
  
"A-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA!!!!!!!!!!!!! EXACTLY!!!!" Seto, having heard this, was at once taken away from his musing when the hubbub struck his ears. He even reacted--he turned to the flustered group of people with wide eyes.  
  
"Wai~!" Serenity cheered innocently. "Seto-chan likes the idea!"  
  
Seto gasped in pure shock. He wanted to cry out an "I DO NOT FOR GOD'S SAKE!!!!!!" but, since the sentence containing the not very ideal words came out from his naivete little Serenity's mouth, he just... he just... he just... froze. (Quite uncommon for a famous CEO, huh?) Ryou quietly fumed. "I will never in my whole life comply with such idea," he stated firmly.  
  
"HE'S RIGHT!!!!" Marik roared.  
  
With that, Bakura woke up with a start. "HEY MIND THE VOLUME YOU DWEEB!!!" the boy yelled.  
  
"But, Bakura, check this out!" And Marik told him with every juicy detail the situation the girls had placed them into.  
  
"WHAT THE?!?!?" Bakura screeched.  
  
"We don't mind dressing up as boys," chimed Tea with an irritatingly darling smile on her face. "In fact, it's normal everyday wear for us. It's YOU guys who HAVE the problem."  
  
"Then we won't have to agree on that," Ryou finished with a tight flourish. The two boys behind him nodded vigorously.  
  
"WRONG! Sorry, can't do that," said Mai slyly. "Majority wins. We casted votes."  
  
"Oh yeah? Who voted?" demanded Bakura.  
  
All three girls raised their hands.  
  
"Ha! Four boys to you three girls!" roared Seto (I thought he was silent.) in triumph. "I say it's--"  
  
Serenity raised her hand.  
  
"Huh? SERENITY!!"  
  
"Arigatou for raising your hand when I told you so, Serenity-chan!" Tea told the little girl (* snicker *) cheerfully.  
  
"You're welcome, Tea!" replied Serenity with the same cheerfulness.  
  
"Why you little--!" Seto raged. "How dare you take advantage of my beloved Serenity naivete? THIS WILL NOT COME UNPUNISHED!!"  
  
"Calm down," Ryou assured his outraged friend. "Whatever happens, it's still four to four. Nobody loses, nobody wins."  
  
"But Seto-chan liked the idea too," added Serenity with a hint of sadness in her tone.  
  
Still, Seto froze. (Inner thoughts: HOW COULD YOU PUT WORDS IN MY MOUTH LIKE THAT~?!)  
  
"Thank you for mentioning on being concerned about Seto-chan when I told you so, Serenity-chan!" Tea said again, thankfully.  
  
"You're very welcom, Tea!" Serenity replied once more, still cheerful as ever.  
  
"HA!!!" Zwen rampaged. "HOW'S ABOUT THAT? FIVE TO THREE!!! NOW WHO'S THE MAN?"  
  
It was the three girls' time to romp around the room as though they were in some kind of a voodoo ritual as the boys stood stiffer than the stiffest statues. "Hey, wouldn't it be all-out fun to dress Ryou-kun up?" Zwen announced just as about suddenly as an unexpected nuclear explosion. Ryou froze. "YEAH!!!" Mai (the make-up and hairdressing expert) and Tea cheered, squealing in delight.  
  
Now, even the rest of the boys were staring at Ryou (poor ryou-kun!).  
  
Something quite registered in ALL of their minds.  
  
Now everyone looked at him like carnivores on a piece of nice, juicy, tender meat.  
  
"He-hey!" hiccuped Marik. "Now that you girls have mentioned it..."  
  
Bakura smirked. "I'll say..."  
  
Seto still froze, but not as frozen as before (?). "WHAT?!?!" Ryou yelled in pure untainted, and 100% horror. "I WILL NOT ALLOW THIS!!!!!"  
  
Dear readers,  
  
Wanna know how it's like when Ryou freaks out?  
  
(Reader nods.)  
  
(Actual reader: HEY~!)  
  
Okay. Then read on!!!  
  
"I can imagine Ryou-kun right now!" cried Mai out. "With (hiccup) the make- up and all!!" And then.... "AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA~!!!" roared the rest of the boys (including Seto?--Nah, couldn't be!)  
  
"Hahahahnhnhnhnhahaha~!" said Seto. (A miracle! Everybody wave your white handkerchiefs in the air--!)  
  
"Hey, TRAITORS!!!" Ryou suppressed a screech. "YOU SHALL ALL HAVE YOUR DAYS!!!" "Yeah, sure, right, um, whatever," said Zwen dully.  
  
"Let's give him curls!" Mai suggested.  
  
"What's he gonna wear?" Tea wondered with great delight.  
  
As for Ryou, "...^^x..." "I KNOW!!!" Zwen rejoiced. "A micromini skirt!!!"  
  
"No, no!" Tea cut in in between a hysterical I'm-trying-to-control-my- giggling-so-I-could-say-something ritual. "A micromini skirt WITH A SLIT UP TO THE NORTH POLE!!!"  
  
"Yahoo!" bellowed Bakura and Marik.  
  
Ryou, "....^^X...."  
  
"Laces! Laces!" squealed Mai, "Pink laces!"  
  
Tea shouted with all her might, "Spaghetti straps! Spaghetti straps!!"  
  
"No!" Zwen contradicted.  
  
:Whew!: thought Ryou.  
  
"STRAPLESS!!!" Zwen deadpanned.  
  
:NANI?!: thought Ryou. ( pure terror )  
  
"All right!" Bakura and Marik hi-fived.  
  
Ryou, "...^^XX..."  
  
"Tube!!" continued Zwen. "With a micromini skirt with pink laces!!"  
  
"Oh my!" commented Mai with another of her furtive smiles. "What a woman!" Meanwhile, Ryou was in the verge of exploding. "And--" added Tea, "We must not forget to invite the rest of the gang. Y'know. Like Yugi, Yami, Duke, Malik, Joey, Tris--" "ANYBODY BUT THE REST OF THE GANG!" Ryou cried out. "Sorry, called 'em all," Zwen informed him from nowhere as she put the phone receiver down the next time Ryou looked at her. "No, you didn't." Ryou challenged her. "Yes, I did," Zwen argued. "Well, then--prove it!" The phone rang. "Go ahead and answer it," Zwen told him simply. "It's your phone anyway." Ryou kept a solid watch out for the black-haired girl through narrowed eyes as he slowly made his way to the phone. At the third ring, he picked it up.  
  
"Hello? Bakura Residence," said Ryou. "Is that you, Ryou?" That was Malik's voice. "WOW! A Halloween party on the 31st of October? I heard you're in the hot seat. What's the news, by the way?" "Uh... callyoulaterMalikbye!" Then the redheaded boy replaced the receiver with a bang. "Told ya," said Zwen dryly. "Now they know you're in the spotlight," Mai said devilishly. "Are THEY gonna be a whole lot disappointed when you've got nothing to show!" At that, Ryou completely and most totally lost his cool. "I'M OUTTA HERE!!!" he yelled as he made his way to the front door. "Oh NO!" cried Zwen. "He's trying to get away!!"  
  
"Get 'im, men!" instructed Tea, tapping the mallet for good measure on the palm of her hand as she eyed Bakura like a snake.  
  
"Uh. yes!" Bakura said, dragging Marik along. "Come, Marik, my friend, let us not let Ryou get away from--" ( with Russian accent)  
  
"Hey, Bakura, what's that you're readin' from under your coat?" asked Marik as he peered over Bakura's shoulder.  
  
Bakura snatched a piece of paper away from Marik's view. "It's a script, you idiot! I better mind what I say nowadays whenever Tea's around!"  
  
"Oh, okay. But shall we go on chasing Ryou?"  
  
"HEY YOU DORKS!!! HE'S GETTIN' AWAY!!!" yelled Tea in the background.  
  
"Well," thought Bakura aloud. "To be honest, I do wanna see Ryou--"  
  
Marik suppressed a snicker. "--wearin' a tube shirt..."  
  
Bakura began to snort. "--in a micromini skirt..."  
  
"...with pink laces!" they both finished. Then, with more of those sly smiles (oh now, 'tis transferred to them as well), they looked at each other.  
  
"ONWAAAARRDD~!!" Then they chased Ryou. ~~ October the 30th... Everyone had glued himself or herself to every single door and window to prevent Ryou from escaping. But the boy lost no heart. "You can't keep that up forever," he told them. "AND you can't keep me in here forever!" "OH YES WE CAN!!!" they all chorused. "We shall prevail!!" raged Zwen determinedly. "Oh, Ryou dear!" called Ryou's aunt from the kitchen. "Do your friends want any breakfast, lunch, or dinner?"  
  
The tempting aroma of food (food...@_@) filled the air. )  
  
At the mention of the three basic meals, which everyone didn't have, their poor little mouths watered.  
  
"NO!" answered the redheaded boy with an equally sly smile on his face. "THEY'RE DOING JUST FINE HERE!!" Then he turned to all his friends. "Right, guys?"  
  
They all turned to Zwen. "You were saying?"  
  
Zwen dwindled into her kawaii neko style. "So maybe we can't prevail very much..."  
  
"Ryou! Dinner's ready!" announced Shiori (the aunt's name is Shiori) from the dining room.  
  
Ryou gave all of them a triumphant smile of cruel glee and mockingly skipped to the dining hall. "I'm eating my dinner, now," he proclaimed in a singsong voice. "So, like, see ya later!"  
  
After a while...  
  
"Oi, Bakura!" Marik nudged Bakura as they barricaded the gigantic front door. "D'ya think we could sneak away and grab a bite without anyone noticing?"  
  
Bakura faced his friend. "I do believe we can try!"  
  
They tried to sneak away ever so quietly...  
  
The next thing they knew, Ryou was dashing to the unguarded front door!  
  
"Aaahhhh!" yelled Tea from the window she was in charge in. "YOU POMPOUS LI'L FOOLS!!! HOW DARE YOU LEAVE YOUR POST?! CAN'T YOU SEE RYOU'S GETTIN' AWAY?!"  
  
"Oh, man!" screamed the two boys and rushed to the front door and resumed their barricading even before Ryou could reach the knob.  
  
"AW NUTS!!" cried Ryou.  
  
"Nyah nyah!" said everybody.  
  
"I don't believe it!!" said Ryou. "You're all ganging up on me!!"  
  
"Face it, deary," said Zwen sweetly. "Unless you agree to let us dress you up and--"  
  
The two boys sniggered.  
  
"OVER MY DEAD BODY!!" Ryou yelled, then he made his way to his bedroom window.  
  
They blocked the bedroom window.  
  
Undefeated, Ryou made his way to his parent's bedroom window.  
  
They blocked his parents' bedroom window.  
  
"IS THIS HOW DESPERATE YOU ARE?!" inquired Ryou from all of them.  
  
They all exchanged glances with each other.  
  
"UH-HUH!!"  
  
Ryou face-faulted. "Well, you really couldn't keep that up, anyway."  
  
"OH YES WE WILL!!"  
  
"No, you can't!"  
  
But unfortunately, they did. Till the next day!!! (oh, great...)  
~~ October the 31st, the morning right before that night's party... "Oh, c'mon, Ryou-kun! Don't be such a killjoy!!" Zwen pleaded. Twenty minutes had passed since another morning's chase started, and again everyone blocked all possible exits the house contained (that's how frequently they've stayed in Ryou's house. They know the exits one by one). Trapped, Ryou had no choice but to surrender (not to agree at last with the turn-about party, thankee very much!).  
  
That done, he was placed in a trial by court...  
  
With Zwen as the "judge".  
  
Well, sort of. "Come on, Ryou! Pwweeeaaase?" she begged, emphasizing her puppy eyes.  
  
"NO!" Ryou looked away, avoiding her gaze. In fact, it was a snobbish kind of "looking away".  
  
"Hey~! Just for this one li'l party. PWEEAASE?"  
  
Ryou's sort-of "calm" diffused. "YOU KNEW ALL ALONG DIDN'T YOU?! YOU PURPOSELY SET ME UP IN THIS TURN-ABOUT PARTY THING SO YOU COULD DRESS ME UP AS A GIRL LIKE SOME KIND OF BERSERK-O BARBIE DOLL!!!"  
  
"But, Wyou-chan...." Zwen squeaked.  
  
"NO!" replied Ryou. "And don't you 'Wyou-chan' me! I am SO upset with you, young lady!!"  
  
"Ooooohh," cat-called everyone. "Ryou's mad."  
  
Ryou glared at All Those Assembled. "One more and you'll see whips all over (he stole his yami's whips)," he direly warned.  
  
"Ooohh," cat-called everyone once more. "Whips all ov--" WHACK! WHACK! SMACK! "OOowwww!!!" howled Bakura and Marik in deep agony as they nursed the places where Ryou's whip, um, touched (mind you) them.  
  
"Hn. Morons," Seto remarked dully, eyes closed, as he continued his musing by the window. (Ain't movin' about much today, are we, Seto?)  
  
"But, Wyou-chan!!" protested the little black-haired deity. "You're such a killjoy!!!"  
  
"Let me make this clear," answered Ryou, looking at Zwen straight in the eye. "I know now from the very start that it was you who brought about this idea, and made it look like as though Mai-san was the one who came up with in, then you just put up some kinda 'play-actin' and all that, just coz you wanna see me in a MICROMINI SKIRT?!?!"  
  
"It's not only that, Ryou-kun," Mai reasoned. Then, she took out a cigarette, lit it, puffed from it, then turned to Zwen. "Hey, I was thinkin', Zwen, what made you exactly think about this turn-about party thingie?" All heads turned to her. Ryou had the most unbecoming look among them all.  
  
"Well, um," began Zwen, nervously. "Um... well, COZ HE'S REALLY PRETTY AND ALL!!!"  
  
Everyone face-faulted, but most of the populace toppled bodily to the ground. "Uh-huh," said Ryou slowly, raising an eyebrow. "Is that all?"  
  
To add to that, Mai and Tea showered upon her "We-know-that-already!!!" looks.  
  
"Um..." stammered Zwen, beginning to twiddle her fingers. She felt she didn't want to talk to Ryou outright, so she turned to Mai. "Hey, I told you, right?"  
  
Mai looked puzzled. "Told me what?"  
  
"That I was wondering how would Ryou look like if he's a girl coz he's so pretty and so cute--"  
  
"REPEAT THE LAST WORD!!!" Tea suddenly burst out.  
  
As though everyone's minds were in coordination except for poor Zwen's, which didn't take the hint, they all gasped and turned to the poor flustered girl.  
  
"I said that he's so cute."  
  
"NANI?"  
  
"I said that he's so cute!"  
  
"One more time!!"  
  
Zwen was beginning to fume for their slow-mindedness.  
  
"I SAID THAT RYOU-KUN'S SO CUTE!!"  
  
Ryou was already turning beet red and shriveling from embarrassment. Of course, he couldn't just speak his mind like that, coz poor Zwen's gullibility was at hand, and he did want to see that for himself.  
  
"Hey, hey!" whispered Tea, taking everyone's attention. "She ain't herself any longer! Let's see what she has to say! Mai, ask the Ultimate Question!"  
  
"Sure!" Mai was more than willing to participate.  
  
"AND WHY DO YOU THINK HE'S CUTE?"  
  
Their inquisitiveness was getting too much in her nerves. So, to get it over with without even her thinking, she took a DEEP breath and cried out in her loudest, most earth-shaking tone that echoed throughout the house (and probably the whole block where the house was...).  
  
"COZ I LIKE HIM!!!! YOU HAPPY NOW?!?"  
  
Silence.  
  
Even Ryou himself was amazed.  
  
Everybody looked at each other.  
  
Then they all looked at Zwen.  
  
"Ooops," squeaked Zwen, finally getting the point of their inquisitiveness, and feeling so stupid of falling for it, she wished that a blackhole at the base of the earth would swallow her into the abyss forever and ever. "Did I say a bad word?"  
  
"Her tongue slipped!" Tea called out. "She's told the truth!!"  
  
Commercial:  
  
Q. How can a word/phrase produced from a mere slip of the tongue be capable of being the truth? A. It's called the "Freudian Slip of Tongue!"  
  
In Psychology, things that we subconsciously or unconsciously hold as secretive are suddenly and eventually released from our "hidden" memory to our conscious state through saying words we don't know we have already said until it's too late. In other words, when your mind loses its conscious control, things from your unconscious and subconscious surface out, and one of these examples is when your tongue "slips".  
  
And that's what happened to Zwen just right about now! Tea held her breath in pride. "I knew those psychology lessons would come in handy!!"  
  
Everyone else (except Ryou The undefeated Genius for that matter) looked at her with dull, utterly quizzical looks on their faces. "Yeah, well, um, okay, fine, as you say so..." Back to the fic....  
  
"I can not absorb exactly what you are trying to convey, Zwen," Ryou told her in a matter-of-fact voice. "You brought me into a perilous, perverted and undignified situation because you like me?"  
  
Everyone waited for an answer as all heads turned to the black-haired girl.  
  
"Heehee," said the blue-haired girl.  
  
"WELL AREN'T YA GONNA SAY SOMETHIN'?!" gasped Mai, getting all excited.  
  
"I said it'll be all-out fun if we ever dress Ryou-kun up," Zwen said softly, feeling quite pitiful. "I just said that coz I wanted him to flame me and all."  
  
"Which I did," Ryou said, surprised that he fell for Zwen's "schemes". He cleared his throat, and asked, "And why did you want me to flame you?"  
  
"Hn," said Seto.  
  
"Keep your flame to yourself, shrimpy," grumbled Marik, keeping a close eye on the little rich boy.  
  
"Well?" demanded Tea. Ryou merely hid a smile (he-ey... what for?).  
  
"Coz... coz..." Zwen's voice quivered. "Coz you don't really talk to me a lot," Zwen explained, still twiddling her fingers and avoiding everybody's gazes. "And, well, I kinda thought to myself that if there'd be any way to talk to me--I mean, like, really intense--is when you'll get mad at me. I know you've been really annoyed with me coz of my big mouth, and you can't really trust me with any secrets since my tongue slips more often than not-- gee, like now--and, well, getting mad would soon lead to other conversations, and... I like you, like I said, and, once we get to talk to each other, we'll get to know each other more and hopefully... you'll like me too."  
  
"That," commented Mai, sweatdropping, "is the weirdest, most eccentric concept I've ever heard, Zwen-chan. You and your theories!!"  
  
"Well, what am I supposed to theorize?" Zwen wailed. "You know me!! A theory from a ditz is total disease!!!"  
  
"Hel~lo!" exclaimed Marik, popping out of nowhere into the scene. "You people are WAY out of season! We're talking about Halloween and here we are, talking about--"  
  
"Crushes?" volunteered Tea sheepishly.  
  
"Tsk. Tsk. Tsk. Don't say bad words, Tea-chan," Mai remarked, sadly shaking her head.  
  
"Hn," grunted Seto. "As if there aren't any girls in the world who hadn't had a crush on that white-haired freak yet."  
  
"YOU'RE JUST JEALOUS!!!" fumed Zwen, irritated that Seto destroyed the wonder-filled (duh-hey) scene. She was blushing like the ripest tomato the world has ever harvested (?).  
  
"Nani?!" exclaimed Seto, pouncing to life (yeah, well).  
  
"Hey! Hey! Wait a sec! Hold it, people!" Tea walked right in the middle of the conversation circle, waving her arms in confusion. "It all started with the costume party ideas. Now... COULD SOMEONE PLEASE TELL ME WHAT THE HECK ALL THIS HAS LEAD US INTO?!?!" Marik and Bakura looked at each other. "We can tell!" they volunteered. "Oh, yeah? I mean--oh no!" Mai groaned, trying to hide her face from utter shame for her idiotic friend and his sidekick (or is it the other way around?). [Bakura: I AM most definitely NOT that buffoon's SIDEKICK!!! (A.k.a. "Please, have mercy on my soul!!!)  
  
Marik: So what are you, then?  
  
Bakura: YOUR LEADER!!!  
  
Marik (dully): Uh-huh, yah, sure, wudever.  
  
Bakura: Why YOU--@#$#%^&^$%%^@!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!] Bakura and Marik began to dance a jig, singing, "Zwen and Ryou, sitting on a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G!!! Zwen and Ryou sitting on a tree, K-I-S-S-I--" BASH!!! "You two better kindly stop that or I'll send BOTH of your souls to the shadow realm!! YOU I'M FULLY CAPABLE OF THAT 'CAUSE BAKURA TAGHT ME!!!!!" Ryou growled with a clenched fist swearing bloody battle at the side of his face.  
  
"Wahaha---" The two rubbed their heads and held their peace. "Hooray, Tea, another reaction!" Mai proclaimed, sheerly delighted.  
  
"I'll say!" said Tea. Then, with a sneaky little bratty look on her face again, she turned to Mai and shrewdly told her friend, "Hey--could it be that Ryou likes Zwen, too?"  
  
The new concept sent shivers to both of their spines.  
  
"Lovely!" clapped Mai. "And to tell you, based on my observations, is that Ryou doesn't normally react when he is teased with a girl he isn't attracted to!"  
  
"I smell something!!!" sang Tea aloud, twinkly-eyed.  
  
"Yeah~!" joined in Mai. "And I love the way it smells!" "Oh, please. Check your noses coz you two aren't smelling right," Ryou said dully, but he was blushing so furiously, bright enough for the world to see. ( ~Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer had a VERY shiny nose...~ ooops, wrong season!!)  
  
"He's denying it!" observed Mai. "See what I mean?"  
  
"Denying what?" Ryou asked, in a great pretense to sound puzzled.  
  
"That you like Zwen!" shrieked Tea.  
  
"I do not!"  
  
"Not like Zwen?"  
  
"No! That I'm not denying anything that I li--ooops," Ryou stopped dead on his tracks. "The slip of tongue attacks again!!!" Tea cheered. "WE RULE!!" She and Mai started skipping around the room like Jack and Jill going up the hill or whatever (lalalalala....).  
  
"Hey, freak, lost your brain control?" Seto told Ryou in a slightly amused tone.  
  
Ryou turned to him. "Oh, quiet now, will you? Hey (just realizing seto called him a 'freak' more than once).shutup!!" "Guys!" Serenity came bounding in with a beaming smile on her sweet face.  
  
"Hai, Serenity-chan?" Tea asked, wondering why the little girl (* snicker *) looked like she was trying to tell everyone something.  
  
"Well, it is October the 31st, ne? I heard that the party you planned will start about six," Serenity explained, the smile never fading.  
  
Silence.  
  
They looked at the clock.  
  
Silence.  
  
"MY SERENITY-SAN IS RIGHT!!!" cried Seto. "WE HAVE ONLY ABOUT TWO MORE HOURS TO PREPARE!!"  
  
Silence.  
  
The girls looked at the boys.  
  
The boys dwindled at the girls' stares.  
  
The girls smiled.  
  
The boys got the picture. "Gentlemen," Ryou announced, formally clearing his throat. "I do believe that we must--" "SCRAMBLE!!!" All four guys (yea, including Seto) bounded from their positions and started running about in the house, trying so much in vain to escape the girls' eager stylish hands. ~~ 'Tis the eve of October the 31st... THE EVE OF THE TURN-ABOUT HALLOWEEN PARTY!!! (ye rejoice o angels on high...) "Whoa, man!" commented Mai as she looked down at her handiwork.  
  
"Love the dress, sweetie!" Tea gushed, giggly all over.  
  
"OWWW, BABY--!" Bakura and Marik wolf-whistled at the sight of... Ryou. "YOU GUYS OWE ME BIG!!!" Ryou screamed as he struggled against the ten-inch chains that they all tied him up with to keep him still and prevent him from, well, escaping. "BE THANKFUL I'M NOT IN A CONDEMNING MOOD TODAY!!!" "Then do condemn us," Tea sighed with tears of laughter in her eyes, "Coz we'll all die happy!!" The rest of the gang nodded. So, just as promised, Ryou was in an all-tight, sleek, tube shirt, in a micromini skirt with pink (snicker) laces!!! They even curled his hair, placed a nice, wee, little bonnet on his head, and--ta-da! the finished product is... "Man, you are pretty!" remarked Bakura (ah, he never fails to wonder) the millionth time.  
  
"THAT'S SICK!!!" Ryou yelled in utter disgust.  
  
"You don't look so bad yourself, Bakura-chan," Tea loomed over him with a grin.  
  
"Oh, shut up, you," Bakura babbled. "And don't you Bakura-chan me!!" To add to the fun, Bakura was wearing a hanging T-shirt with matching flare pants and a bead bracelet. Not to mention the baby blue eyeshadow and the pastel purple lipstick, which the mistress of cosmetology applied herself. "Yup!" Mai said, beaming with pride. As for Seto, well, the manly Seto-- Serenity held up a spaghetti-strapped mini tee with a flower in the middle. "Here, Seto-chan. Come wear this!"  
  
"ANYTHING FOR YOU MY SERENITY-SAN~!" Seto proclaimed, faltering as he took the mini tee with trembling hands. "Thanks Serenity-chan for making Seto-chan wear those things when I told you so!" Tea sweetly said out of nowhere.  
  
"You're welcome, Tea!" Serenity brightly replied, with a pleased smile on her face.  
  
Seto shot Tea the Look of Death. "Why you--" "Oh, my, my, I think I hear the doorbell!" Zwen suddenly emerged from her wherever hiding place and skipped merrily to answer the front door.  
  
"May I ask one simple little question that won't really be much of a bother?" asked Ryou from his bound state. Mai came up to him and twirled a curl 'round her fingers.  
  
"Kawaii~!" she gurgled.  
  
"Go away from me," Ryou muttered through clenched teeth, "and just listen to my question!!"  
  
"Okay," said Tea and Mai in unison.  
  
"Are the guys whom YOU'VE invited, into the turn-about thing too?" The girls looked at each other. "Well," replied Tea. "Not really..." "WHAT DO YOU MEAN 'NOT REALLY'?!?!" Once again, my friends, Ryou was losing his cool (!). "Well, we did promise everyone that you'll be in the hot seat..." Mai said (^^). "NANI?!?!" Ryou cried. "You mean that you've made a FREAK SHOW outta me?" "But you are pretty..." oogled Tea. Silence. "I WANT MY DADDY!!!" Ryou wailed, totally not the Ryou we all know anymore.  
  
But, sad to say, Shiori was with all the other mothers/aunts/whatever, doing all the motherly things and all that, happily leaving the house all to her nephew once again, since he and his friends had a party that night. "It could be worse," whispered Mai to Tea from a corner wherein they'd gathered to talk some, um, "matters" over. "What if Shiori-san were here, and Ryou-kun came prancing around in that dre--" "I heard THAT!!!" Ryou yelled from the background. "Everybody's here!" they heard Zwen declare from downstairs.  
  
"Please... I can't go through this anymore," Ryou said weakly, feeling sorry for all those creatures who'd undergone all the hard work to persecute him for the bad things he hadn't done, etcetera, etcetera...  
  
"BE A MAN AND JUST GET IT OVER WITH!!!" Mai scolded, making her way to the next room to change into the 'hip-hop' style kind of boy's clothes.  
  
"You could at least unchain me!" Ryou stated, still struggling from the bonds.  
  
Tea walked over to him. "We'll only unchain you as soon as we get some heavy security to assure that you won't run away--"  
  
"I will not run away." Suddenly, just about suddenly, Ryou sounded serious.  
  
This troubled Tea.  
  
"Nani?" she squabbled. "You mean it?"  
  
She was greeted by silence.  
  
Abruptly, Ryou just did a little chuckling fit.  
  
"Huh?" wondered Tea. "Oh, my!"  
  
Ryou seemed to be our dear old Ryou once again. "What choice do I have? I'll just make all your hard work (gee, I wonder why) pay off." Tea rushed to the room Mai was changing in.  
  
"Oh, Mai!" Tea called, tapping the door. "You won't get mad will you?"  
  
"And why is that?" demanded Mai from the other side of the door.  
  
"Coz I set Ryou-kun free," reasoned Tea. "He said he won't do no more runnin' away!"  
  
In a flash, Mai opened the door with a look of splendid (!) surprise on her face. "He said WHAT?" "That I won't run away," Ryou said matter-of-factly from behind Tea.  
  
Unfortunately, his looks matched his pose and Mai--  
  
"MAN YOU ARE REALLY REALLY PRETTY!!!" the poor girl ranted. "EVEN MUCH PRETTIER THAN I AM!!"  
  
"There, there, Mai-san," Tea comforted her friend as Ryou watched them with a sweatdrop and a question mark on the side of his head.  
  
"I'll... um, be downstairs if you need me," Ryou announced, taking little steps to the stairwell in his high-heeled knee-high boots (Where on earth did the girl's get all those junk the poor boy's wearing?). Meanwhile downstairs... Halloween though it may be, the house possessed a quite ordinary party night atmosphere. Music blared (Special participation of "Mambo No.5"... yike....), food were passed on, and of course... everybody felt at home (poor house...). "Hic!" Yami sputtered as he took his one-hundred-and-thirty-fifth shot of vodka just 5 seconds after he arrived.  
  
"Hey Bakura, get us some more popcorn!" Joey yelled, glancing disappointedly at the empty bowl.  
  
"I AM NOT YOUR SLAVE!!!!" Bakura roared from where he stood.  
  
Joey turned to the little bit o' noise that met his ears. "Oi, Bakura! So that's where you are! Whatya doin' coverin' yerself up with the curtains?"  
  
Bakura raised a fist at Joey. "NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS!!!" "Oh, Seto-chan! This one's so kawaii!" Serenity raised a pretty, sparkly pearl necklace and handed it to Seto who was quite (^^00000....), um, nevermind. "Can you wear it for me too?"  
  
For once, and for the first time, Seto the man got to his senses.  
  
"Serenity-san, my love, did TEA TELL YOU TO TELL ME TO DO STUFF AGAIN?!"  
  
Serenity blinked. Then... she smiled. "No Seto-san, I told this to you all by myself!"  
  
Poor Seto the man was in tears. "My Serenity-san!!! What have they done to thee...???" "Hey guys!" announced Mai, taking a microphone from the mists beyond. "Remember the guy on the hot seat we told you about over the phone?" "Nooooooooooo! Pleeeeeaaaaasse~!" came a faint wail from somewhere deep behind the dining room doors. "Yeah, yeah, what's all that fuss about?" All Those Present wondered and waited in GREAT (uh-oh) anticipation.  
  
But Mai was whispering harshly from behind the dining room doors. "Hey, you! They didn't come all the way here for nothin', you know!" "I've got a question!" Yugi, the li'l yo-yo boy, called from his place beside the drunken Yami (quite high now ^^8888) as he raised his hand.  
  
Mai felt interrupted. "What?!"  
  
"Why are all you girls wearin' boy stuff?" The li'l kid voiced out his observations.  
  
Mai then smirked. "COZ THAT'S THE WHOLE POINT!!" And, without warning, she flung the dining room doors ever wider to reveal... "MAI!!!" yelled the figure who had vainly tried to seek refuge behind it. All Those Assembled stared. "Hey, is that a new girl?" inquired Tristan.  
  
"I'll say. Looks kinda familiar, though," said Malik.  
  
"Wow! A babe!" yelled the drunken Yami. "ENOUGH!!" yelled the "girl" before them. "I SHALL HEAR NO MORE OF THIS!! Okay, Mai, you had your fun, now bail me outta this already!" To his horror, Tea, Mai, Bakura, and Marik (who were still behind the curtains) were somewhere by the punchbowl...  
  
"Okay, pay up!" hissed Mai to her younger 'friend'.  
  
Marik frowned. "Bye bye my monthly allowance!!!"  
  
Ryou's eyes narrowed. "Some friends you guys are!" he called. After half an hour... "AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA~!!!!" laughed half of All Those Assembled as THE truth has been revealed.  
  
"A TURN-ABOUT PARTY?!" the rest of All Those Assembled echoed what Mai had said.  
  
"You heard me, dearies," said the girl, "and that... BABE (snicker, snicker) you were oogling over about was no other than RYOU!!!" Cricket chirps.... "Wow."  
  
"OOooohhhhh...."  
  
"Fascinating."  
  
"Compelling!"  
  
"Mystifying!" "NOW WHAT'RE THOSE SUPPOSED TO MEAN?!" Ryou demanded, looking rather masculine (oh, yeah) even as he wore that girlash-y getup. For the next few minutes, everyone was treating the poor little angel as though he were some kind of scientific experiment.  
  
"He looks good as a boy, AND he looks good as girl!" Malik observed, making it sound important.  
  
"What a breakthrough in hereditary field of science!" Duke remarked scientifically. "I must know how this is done... to enhance my looks..."  
  
Everyone gave him the Glare.  
  
"Er, well, scientifically saying, I must experiment it on myself, you know, to get the best results... blah, blah, blah, yakkety-shmaketty, diddly-doo, lalalala..." (Hey, since when did he love science?)  
  
No one was listening to him. "Was that a Halloween party or a science fair?" Bakura asked Ryou somewhere in the house's lobby after the party people had used up all their energy oohing and ahhing over the poor boy still in the gods-forsaken drag show outfit.  
  
Ryou heaved a sigh. "Well, at LEAST they didn't get any ideas..."  
  
Then, suddenly, Yugi popped from gods-know-where. "Heya, Ryou-san! Are you gay?" An Unidentified Flying Something seemed to crash out of the lobby window to the skies above. Only those with the sharpest eyes could see that...  
  
"Gee, look how fast Yugi sails to the moon!" exclaimed Marik as the others nodded with him in dire agreement. "Well, he's just as kid anyhow," Ryou reasoned out, calming down from that little fit he had.  
  
Bakura was beginning to feel utterly intimidated about his friend (whoaaa boy... dinna know he can punch, actually...^^00). It was past two in the morning... November the 1st.... "Bye bye everyone!" Serenity said from the doorway, waving at any creature that exited the front door (There had even been a Mr. Cockroach). "Thanks for coming!" "Wow, some Halloween party," Bakura remarked as he surveyed the BIG mess before him.  
  
"You know what? I wished we just could've gone trick or treating," Marik said with a sigh.  
  
Seto charged at him in full force!  
  
Whump.  
  
"THEN WHY DIDN'T YOU SUGGEST THAT EARLIER, YOU FREAK?!?!" the CEO shrieked, still in the little oh-so-kawaii baby blue Sunday dress the girls (with the special participation of Serenity-chan, who was, as we all know, the object of Tea's control) forced him to wear.  
  
Marik glared at Seto after rubbing his sore head. "HEY, AS IF YOU'D WANNA GO TRICK OR TREATIN' TOO, YOU KNOW!!!" "What? We--clean this up?" the girls shrieked as Ryou gave them the word.  
  
"You heard me," said Ryou. "Punishment for all the trouble you've cost. And don't you DARE protest, or I'll have the chance to pay all of you back, girls you may be!!"  
  
"Awwwww," wailed Tea and Mai as they swiped brooms and rags on wherever they could do so.  
  
Ryou left.  
  
"Hey," Tea suddenly piped up. "Where's Zwen?"  
  
"How should I know," Mai replied, shrugging. "I didn't even see her much at the party, too, you know." "Achoo!" Zwen sneezed into her coat tail (As we all know, the girls were wearin' boys' outfits). She was sitting inside the pavilion located somewhere in the gardens of the Minamino residence's backyard. She sniffled, then blew into her coat again. Ryou definitely heard someone with quite a runny nose somewhere. Well, he was about to go back to his room and change FOR GOOD when he thought that that sniffling sound seemed more urgent. So he checked it out, and discovered the source of it inside the pavilion. "Zwen-san!" Ryou exclaimed, surprised to find the black-haired deity all alone in such a teary state.  
  
When the unfortunate girl heard his voice, she nearly lost her wits. "Ryou- san! Wh... What're you doing here?"  
  
"I was gonna ask you the same thing," the boy replied, stepping into the pavilion. He made a small gesture to Zwen. "Mind if I sit?"  
  
Zwen croaked.  
  
"Oh, I mean," Zwen said, recovering, "No, I don't. Go ahead."  
  
So Ryou did.  
  
Zwen avoided his gaze and made a sniffle or two.  
  
Ryou turned to her. "Zwen-san... are you okay?"  
  
Zwen looked up at him with wide eyes. "Are you asking me what's wrong?"  
  
Ryou gave her a quizzical look, but eventually, he nodded. "Yup. What's wrong about asking a friend what's the matter?"  
  
Zwen swallowed hard. "You mean--you're not mad at me or anything?"  
  
Ryou gave her another look of surprise. "Why should I be mad at--okay, fine. So maybe I was a little angry when you suggested that embarrassing concept with the party. But, that's okay, though. My dignity's still whole, and nothing major happened, so... why should I be mad at you now?"  
  
Zwen found courage to look at Ryou straight in the eye. "I'm... I'm really sorry if I hurt your feelings like that. It's okay if you don't talk to me or anything. I understand."  
  
Ryou knew that this girl needed some comfort and reassuring.  
  
"Zwen," began Ryou, subconsciously (oh, here we go again) taking her hand into his and giving it a squeeze.  
  
The girl froze.  
  
"Don't put all those negative stuff in your head," said the boy. "You may be ditzy and all, but, Zwen--?"  
  
Zwen thawed a little to say, "Hai?"  
  
"You have a good heart, and I'd just like to say that--" It was Ryou's turn to swallow hard. "--that I felt kinda proud when you told everyone that you liked me."  
  
:OH HELP!!!: was Zwen's soul's plea. "R-Really?"  
  
Ryou took her other hand (and the mush starts...). "And I'm proud to like someone like you too, Zwen-san... if you don't mind me telling you that."  
  
:MOTHERRRR!: went on Zwen's soul. "N-no, not at all, Ryou-san..."  
  
"And--" Ryou began to chuckle, "that I really didn't mind when you called me 'Wyou-chan' or whatever..."  
  
Zwen felt that she was really getting feverish from the blush attack she was suffering from right now. "Um..."  
  
"And I really didn't mind when Bakura and Marik sang that--"  
  
Ooops. Was that another slip-of-tongue case?  
  
Zwen looked up, surprised. A gentle wind blew, sending locks of cerise and periwinkle sparkle underneath the pale moonlight.  
  
"--that..?" Zwen wanted to find out, almost in a trance.  
  
"That..." Ryou didn't feel it at first, but he knew that he was leaning over to... to... (^^)  
  
Zwen felt that she needed to close her eyes when... When... "ZWEN AND RYOU SITTING ON A TREE, K-I-S-S-I-N-G!!!" Bakura and Marik flew outta nowhere and started dancing their little trademarked jig once more. Oh, dear. That broke the reverie and the sweet moment...! "OH, I'M REALLY GONNA SEND YOU TO THE SHADOW REALM NOW YOU TWO!!!" Ryou raged as he rushed out to the two little airheads.  
  
"^^0" went Zwen.  
  
Ryou: interesting.  
  
Serenity: how come I was so dumb?  
  
Zwen: no comment.please review!! 


End file.
